Operating mechanism for sliding gate for a discharge outlet mounted on a load containing hopper of a railway car



Sept. 1, 1959 e. B. DOREY OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED ON A LOAD CONTAINING HOPPER OF A RAILWAY CAR 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Jan. 4, 1952 IN V EN TOR.

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OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED oN A LOAD CONTAINING HOPPER OF A RAILWAY CAR 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Jan. 4, 1952 18;) BINVENTOR.

gay/rye I Pansy %M Sept. 1, 1959 G. B. DOREY 2,901,984 OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED ON A LOAD CONTAINING HOPPER OF A RAILWAY CAR Original Filed Jan. 4, 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 @4 i fi '40 I a H I I 19 40 4 40 1202mm. Gear e5 0/ Y 9 Q Sept. 1, 1959 G. B. DOREY OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED ON A LOAD CONTAINING HOPPER OF A RAILWAY CAR 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Original Filed Jan. 4. 1952 INVENTQR. 060 965 Doray,

Sept. 1, 1959 1 DOREY 2,901,984

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED ON A LOAD CONTAINING HOPPER OF A RAILWAY CAR Original Filed Jan. 4, 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 NNEEL INVENTOR. G I 'eorye [70113,

United States Patent OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING GATE FOR A DISCHARGE OUTLET MOUNTED ON A IXARD CONTAINING HOPPER. OF-A RAI LWAY George B. Dorey, Westmount, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Enterprise Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois 3 Claims. c1. 105282) This invention relates to an improved discharge outlet for a load containing hopper which is especially adapted for use in connection with the discharge outlet of a car such as a railway hopper car. This application is a division of application Serial No. 264,897, filed January 4, 1952, now Patent No. 2,791,973, issued May 14, 1957.

The invention is particularly concerned with that type of structure wherein a discharge opening is closed by a sliding gate and wherein the gate is moved .by means of an operating shaft journaled on the gate andsupported by the latter. The movement of the gate is efiected by rotation of the shaft, there being interengaging rack and pinilon teeth carried by the car structure and shaft respective y.

The invention is primarily concerned with that type of sliding gate adapted to be moved through the agency of a rotatable shaft carried by the gate and oneof the objects of this invention, among others, is to provide a structure whereby the shaft is journaled on the gate and supported thereby and the [gate in turn is underlain throughout its range of movement by supporting rails.

Other objects of the invention include the provision.

of guiding means for maintaining operating pinions in axial alignment on the shaft; the provision of improved locking and sealing means for the shaft when the gate is in closed position; and the provision of improved means for supporting rack teeth on the car structure.

In the accompanying drawings the improvement is illustrated as applied to a railway hopper car wherein:

Figure 1 shows as much as necessary of the lower portion of a car to illustrate a pair of longitudinally extending and facing hoppers, the hopper on the left hand side having the gate in closed position and the whopper on theright hand side having the gate in opened position.

Figure. 2 is a vertical end sectional view of the structure shown in Figure 1 as viewed on a line 2-2 of Fig- 1 ure 1.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the discharge outlets and gates shown in Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the gate.

Figure 5 is a vertical longitudinal 'view of the gate shown inFigure 4.

Figuer 6 is a vertical end view of gate shown in Figure 12 is a vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale taken generally along line 12-12 of Figure 3.

In said drawings, Figures 1 and 2, the improvement is shown as applied to a railway hopper car and the car structure is shown as including a center sill 10' and an outwardly spaced sidewall 11. Positioned between the center sill 10 and the side walls are load containing hoppers '12 which are spaced from each other lengthwise of the car and each includes inner and outer side walls indicated at 13 and 14 respectively and front and rear sloping walls indicated at 15 and 16 respectively. The said walls 13, 14, 15 and 16 cooperate to form a four sided hopper which leads to a discharge opening 17 and the area around the said opening is bordered by a unitary frame member 18 one for each hopper 12.

Inasmuch as the construction of the various hoppers is essentially the same, the description herein will be confined to only one of such hoppers and associated frame structure.

The frame '18 is provided with a sliding gate 19 for closing the opening. The frame includes Walls 20, 21, 22 and 23 overlying the walls 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the hopper and below said overlying walls the frame includes a lower chute-like structure formed of walls 24, 25, 26 and 27, said walls being spaced inwardly laterally from the upper overlying walls a suificient distance to provide a horizontally extending ledge surface 28 on which the gate 19 rests when in closed position.

At the facing ends of the respective hoppers the frame members 18 are each provided with an outwardly downwardly sloping wall 29 which, in cooperation with Wall 23, forms an inverted V-shaped section extending transversely from side to side of each frame member above the gate 19 and at each end of the said V-shaped section there are longitudinally extending depending walls 3030.

The gate 19 includes a body plate section 31 which forms the closure for the opening 17 and at the outer end of the gate 19 there is provided a pair of bearings 3232 in which an operating shaft 33 having a square cross section is jou'rnaled. The bearings 3232 are disposed outwardly of the body section 31 and are braced relatively thereto by vertically disposed Walls 32 which are formed with an offset portion 34 to make connection with the outwardly spaced bearings 32 and the body section 31.

Extending between the respective facing hoppers are rail members 35 each formed of angular section with one flange 36 vertically disposed and secured to the depending end walls 3030 and having the adjacent flange 37 inwardly directed to underlie and support the gate 19.

Extending transversely of the gate 19 and disposed substantially in alignment with the axis of the shaft 33 is a guide plate or strap 38 which is secured adjacent to the underside bearing surface 39 of the gate by rivets 40 and is spaced downwardly from the said bearing surface by a boss 41 and is extended outwardly beneath the inwardly directed flange -37 of the rail members 35. The undersurface 39 of the gate 19 in combination with the projecting ends of the guide plate 38 thus forms a pair of guide walls which provide a stable'supporting structure for the gate 19. p The mechanism for moving the gate 19 by rotation of the square shaft 33 includes pinion gears 42 which are non-rotatably mounted on the said shaft 33 and formed with gear teeth 43 which mesh with teeth 44 of rack members 45, the latter being carried by the hopper structure. There are preferably two sets of rack teeth 44 and pinion gears 42 per outlet. The rack member 45 preferably consists of a length of body plate serrated to provide the teeth 44. The rack member 45 is carried by a housing 48 of inverted channel shape including a Web 49 and depending side flanges 50-50, the margins of the latter being reinforced laterally by outwardly extending flanges indicated at 51.

The rack member 45 is welded at each side to the web 490 f the housing 48 as indicated at 52 and the respective ends of the channel member 4-8 are riveted or otherwise secured to the downwardly sloping wall 29 of the inverted V-shaped section of the frame as indicated at 53. The side flanges 5050 of each housing 48' lie at each side of the respective pinions 42 and thereby restrict the latter against axial movement on the shaft 33.

Referring to the shaft 33 it will be recalled that this member is of rectangular cross section and at the outer or operating end there is provided an operating head 54 which is formed with a circular bearing section 55 which is extended in one ofthe bearings 32 of the gate 19. At the opposite end of the shaft 33 a flanged circularly shaped collar 56 is similarly mounted on the shaft to provide a circularly shaped bearing for the shaft.

The operating head 54- is provided with a series of socket openings 57 for receiving and holding a removable bar, and intermediate said openings and the gate 19 there is an elongated body portion 58 and extending through said body portion is a loclring and sealing'pin 59'ha'ving at one end a key shaped end 60 including a laterally extending flange 6% and at the opposite end a handle 61. Elongated apertures 62-62- are formed in the: body portion 53 of the head 54' and said apertures are sufficiently elongated to readily accommodate the key shaped end 60 of the pin 59. The elongated apertures 62 are extended into the plane of the shaft 33 and it is therefore required that the pin- 59 he threaded through the apertures 62 of the head 54 prior to assembly of the latter on the shaft 33. I

The sealing pin 59 is axially movable in a direction at right angles to the shaft 33 and is of sufiicient length to extend through a key shaped aperture 63 formed in a laterally disposed vertical wall 64 of the frame. The key shaped end tl'of the pin 59 is so disposed in relation to the handle 61 and the aperture 63 as to bring the said end 60 of the pin out of registering alignment with the aperture 63 when the handle 61 gravitates to a depending vertical position. The key shaped end 60' is formed with an elongated slot 65 for accommodating a sealing ribbon therethrough. In alignmentwithsaid aperture 65 when the pin 59 isin sealing position with the handle 61 in vertical position there is an'aperture 66, Figure 8, in a horizontally extending upper wall 67 which also accommodates the sealing ribbon. I

The sealing andlocking pin 59 when extended through the aperture 63 effectively locks the shaft 33 against reverse rotation.

The provisionmade for journaling the operating shaft 53 directly on the gate 19 and in turn providing an underlying support by way of the rail members 35' for the gate 19 at the location of the shaft provides'a stable construction for the gate. The operating location, as will be noted by reference to Figure 2, is spaced appreciably from the side of the gate 19 and the overhanging portion thus presented tends to impart a sideways oanting tendency thereto as pressure is exerted on the operating head 54 during rotationof the shaft- 33. However, such canting effect is counteracted by the guide plate 38 making contact with the under-surface 68- of the flanges 37 of the rail members 35 and the bosses 41 contacting the inner edges of the flanges 37.

The entire arrangement involving the shaft 33, pinions 42 and locking means therefor involves only a comparatively small amount of riveting as the entire shaft assembly and its sealing pin 59 is maintained in position by one rivet 69, it being understood that the collar 56 is maintained in axial alignment on the shaft 33 by a loosely mounted headless pin 70 which is maintained in-position by the inner surface of the associated journal bearing of the gate 19.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a hopper constituting a stationary part and having a discharge opening and a sliding gate for the opening constituting a movable part, meansfor moving the gate relatively to said hopper including a rotatable shaft carried by one of the parts and geared pinion means carried by the shaft and rack teeth carried by the other of the parts to mesh with the geared pinion means, an operating head on the shaft and a key shaped sealing and locking pin extending through the head across the plane of the shaft, said hopper having a key shaped opening arranged anddisposed to accommodate the key shaped end of the pinwhen the gate is in closed position.

2. In a hopper constituting a stationary part having a discharge opening and a sliding gate for closing the opening constituting a movable part, means for moving the gate relatively to said hopper including a rotatableshaft carried by one of the parts and geared pinion means carried by the shaft and rack teeth carried by the other of the parts to mesh with said geared pinion means, an operating head on the shaft having slotted openings on opposite sides with portions of said openings overlying said shaft, and a locking pin having a key shaped head including a laterally extending flange insertable only through those portions of said slotted openings overlying said shaft when the same is absent and, after having been inserted through said slotted openings and said shaft having been placed in operative position in said operating head, being prevented by said shaft from being withdrawn from said slotted openings, said hopper having, a key shaped opening arranged and disposed to receive said key shaped head when said gate is in closed position.

3. For combination with a rotatable shaft carrying pinion means for moving a gate to close a hopper opening, said hopper having a key shaped locking pin receiving aperture, an operating head for mounting on one end of said shaft and having slotted openings on opposite sides with portions of said openings overlying said shaft, and a locking pin having a key shaped head for entering said aperture in said hopper to hold said shaft against rotation when the gate is closed, said key shaped head of said locking pin including a laterally extending flange insertable only through those portions of said slotted openings overlying said shaft when the same is absent and, after having been inserted through said slotted openings and said shaft having been placed in operative position in said operating head, being prevented by said shaft from being withdrawn from said slotted openings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,242,844 OConnor Oct. 9, 1917 2,072,292 Campbell Mar. 2, 1937 2,778,319 Dorey Jan. 22, 1957 2,791,973 Dorey May 14, 1957 

